


Ware the Thorns

by imaginary_golux



Series: October Ficlet Challenge [29]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Fluff, F/M, Pining, Self-Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-18 01:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12377838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Prompt 15: Quitting an addictionTumnus knows he needs to leave court - knows it isn't right to feel as he does for young Queen Lucy, who has just recently turned eighteen. Queen Susan has some choice words about this for him.Prompt and beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Ware the Thorns

“Tumnus,” Queen Susan says, “Might I have a word?”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Tumnus says, rising from his work in the flower bed. The Pevensies like walking in the garden, and Tumnus likes tending it, keeping the paths clear even as the flowering plants riot over their beds in a profusion of leaves and blooms that mimics the wildest parts of the forest outside Cair Paravel’s walls.

“Walk with me,” Queen Susan suggests. Tumnus falls into step beside her obediently. She is silent for a little while, admiring the flowers. Finally she says, “We have missed you at court recently.”

Tumnus winces. “My apologies, Majesty.”

“It is not your apologies I want,” Queen Susan says calmly, and Tumnus can hear the steel under the gentle tone. “It is an explanation.”

Tumnus sighs. He knew this conversation was coming, and it is better - far better - that his interrogator be Queen Susan than knife-sharp King Edmund or blunt King Peter or - Aslan forbid - Queen Lucy. “Majesty,” he says at last, sadly, “You know what I am.”

“You are a loyal servant to our rule,” Queen Susan says, not giving him an out.

“I am a faun,” Tumnus says sadly.

“Yes,” Queen Susan agrees. “And?”

Tumnus takes a deep breath. “And I am in love with your sister, Majesty, which is so deeply inappropriate that I cannot find words for it; and every day I spend in her presence is a pleasure and a torment. It is not right that I should feel so, nor that I should take the chance my nature might - might contaminate her.”

“Ah,” Queen Susan says. “We thought that might be the case.” And oh dear, that wasn’t the _royal_ ‘we,’ that was a _plural_ ‘we.’ Which means she’s discussed this with at least one of her siblings. Tumnus prays it was just King Edmund, who always knows everything _anyway_ , and not King Peter or - oh, please, Aslan be kind - Queen Lucy.

Queen Susan is quiet for several moments, apparently lost in contemplation of a particularly enthusiastic rosebush, which is making a spirited effort to devour not only its trellis but that of several of its neighbors and also the castle wall. Tumnus has not attempted to prune it, in part because its thorns are longer than his fingers, but also because - Aslan help him - it is Lucy’s favorite part of the garden.

 _Queen_ Lucy. He must remember that.

“Lucy is eighteen,” Queen Susan says at last. “That is old enough to make her own decisions - not that she has not been doing so for many years already.”

Tumnus grins ruefully. Yes, Queen Lucy _has_ been making her own decisions, and very determinedly too, since the day she walked into Narnia and met a scared, desperate faun in the endless snow. That faun is _still_ scared and desperate, but...for rather different reasons, now. Tumnus never wanted to throw himself at the _White Witch’s_ feet and proclaim his undying devotion, after all.

“She is old enough to begin truly considering suitors,” Tumnus agrees. “Without...distractions.”

“Tumnus,” Queen Susan says, a very faint hint of exasperation in her tone - unusual, that, as Queen Susan is the best of all of the Pevensies at keeping her voice level and calm. “She has already _chosen_ her suitor, you daft faun. _And_ discussed it with all of us. She would have discussed it with _you_ , too, if you hadn’t vanished suddenly from court.”

Tumnus swallows hard. “I am a faun,” he protests weakly. “She deserves a prince - a king - a mighty hero. A _human_.”

“Tumnus,” Queen Susan sighs, “have you considered that perhaps Lucy deserves _exactly what she wants_?”

“Ah,” says Tumnus, too stunned by the suggestion to form a coherent sentence, and Queen Susan shakes her head a little and pats him on the shoulder and glides away, leaving Tumnus staring at the exuberant rosebush and boggling.

Behind him, Queen Lucy’s unmistakable voice says, “It would be one thing if you didn’t _want_ me.”

Tumnus turns around slowly to see his queen - his love - standing in the center of the path. She is as tall as he is, now, slender as a reed, beautiful not as her sister is beautiful, with the calm composure of the ocean, but as the forest is beautiful, wild and dangerous and lovely in all its seasons. “You deserve better,” he says weakly. “I am only a faun, and not the best even of my kind.”

“You are Tumnus, and that is what I want,” Lucy says evenly. “But if you wish to leave - to return to your own home, to never see me again - I will not stop you, nor will my siblings. I will not hold you here against your will.”

“I would rather be at your side than anywhere else in the world, my queen,” Tumnus confesses. “I thought only to protect you.”

“Tumnus,” Lucy says, grinning, “I do not need protection.”

“No,” Tumnus says, and gives in, stepping forward and reaching up to touch her cheek. “My queen, I love you.”

“Good,” Lucy says. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> So Best Beloved and I are doing an October ficlet challenge. We each generated a list of pairings we'd be willing to write and a list of prompts we wanted the other person to write, and then traded prompts lists without knowing what the other person's pairing lists were. We'll be doing a ficlet each every day in October. Should be fun!
> 
> I am, as ever, imaginarygolux on tumblr.


End file.
